Lake Champlain is very much like Loch Ness. It is 110 miles long, only about 11 miles wide, over 300 feet deep, and fairly cold. We have the Lake Champlain Monster, better known as Champ.
      There have been Champ sightings, mostly near the deepest parts of the Lake, for hundreds of years. The sightings are apparently always made by people (a) without cameras, or (b) people too drunk or shaky to focus properly. Samuel de Champlain described Champ as a "20 foot serpent thick as a barrel with a head like a horse" when he sighted it in 1609. M. de Champlain was the first white man to see Champ. Historians believe he came from category (a).

      I took these photos at Missisquoi Bay in 2002; it's an image I had seen there many times over the summer months. Unfortunately, the top image, shot through the trees, as well as the one above are pretty long distance with about an 80mm lens, and shot into the sun during the waning light of the day.
      Sandra Marsi photographed Champ in 1977. The best known image of Champ, her picture appeared in Time and a long list of other newspapers and magazines. Champ has also appeared on Unsolved Mysteries and Fox Network's Sightings, as well as on Japanese television and The Today Show.
      Let's try enlarging the image. We can see it looks remarkably like Ms. Marsi's famous shot, but the detail simply isn't there.

      There are reports that crypto-zoologists hypothesize Champ may be a plesiosaur, a large underwater reptile not seen since prehistoric times. Some people believe that Champ is a large lake sturgeon. And some think it is driftwood.
      Driftwood?

      This is the image above with the "Gaussian Blur" removed. Sure enough, it is a piece of driftwood with an indentified shore bird sitting proud on its "head."
      The Unmuseum has this story about Champ online. That site also has links to "Champ history," and the "Champ-Trackers" email discussion group.

you are here: www.dickharper.com/personal/champ.htm